
■'R. ... ■ . "sa^sss!E"?£s;i 



S>if\ 








Class ^TZCy- 

Book ^70,5 



Copyright N"*- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSrK 



A HISTORY 



of the 



SECOND DIVISION NAVAL MILITIA 

CONNECTICUT 
NATIONAL GUARD 



By 

DANIEL D. BIDWELL 



Hartford, Conn. 
1911 



7ZL 



Copyrighted 1911 

By 
DANIEL D. BIDWELL 



"A 

The Smith-Linsley Company 
Hartford, Conn. 



Cci.A2n^:J9r, 




Dedicated 



All Friends 

of the 
Naval Militia 

Connecticut National Guard 



SLIGHTLY ADAPTED 



*' Here's to the land that gave us birth, 
Here's to her smiling skies, 
Here's to her Tars, the best on earth, 
Here's to the flag she flies." 




PAGE 

Before the Launching- - - - - 1890101896 u 

The Launching - -------- 1896 13 

THE LOG 

Course i, The Cincinnati ------ 1896 16 

Course 2, The Maine ------- 1897 18 

Course 3, The War -------- 1898 21 

Course 4, The Prairie ------- 1899 25 

"Dewey Day" - - September 30, 1899 26 

Course 5, The Prairie Again ----- 1900 32 

Course 6, Camp Newton ------ 1901 34 

Course 7, The Panther ------- 1902 38 

Course 8, At Niantic ------- 1903 42 

Course 9, The Hartford ------ 1904 46 

Course 10, The CoKunbia ------ 1905 51 

Course 11, The MinneapoHs - ----- 1906 55 

Course 12, Again the Prairie ------ 1907 58 

Course 13, And Again the Prairie - - - - 1908 62 

Course 14, The Machias ------- 1909 65 

Course 15, The Louisiana ------ 1910 66 



^ 



(For the Future to Reveal) 

Course 16, ------------ 191 1 

Course 17, ------------ 1912 

Course 18, ----------- - 1913 

Course 19, ------------ 1914 

Course 20, ------------ 191 5 

Appendix A------------- 68 

Appendix B------------- 70 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Frontispiece — First Commanding Officer of the 
Division, Lieutenant Felton Parker 

Captain Louis F. Aliddlebrook ------ jq 

Division Boat Race in Boston Harbor - - - - 24 

Lieutenant-Commander Lyman Root - - - - 26 

Camp Parker ------------ 36 

Boat Crew at Charles Island ------- 41 

Furling Sail on the U. S. S. Hartford - - - - 45 

Lieutenant Howard J. Bloomer ------ ^g 

Lieutenant-Commander Robert D. Chapin - - 53 

Lieutenant Carroll C. Beach ------- 56 

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Charles L. Hogan - 59 

Ensign Frank H. Burns -------- 65 

Lieutenant William G. Hinckley ----- 67 

Tailpiece, Division Pin -------- 76 



JACOB'S LADDER 

Founding of the Division - - - April 29, 1896 

Duty on the U. S. S. Maine - - July 10-16, 1897 

War Company Mustered In - - June 15, 1898 

"Dewey Day" Parade - - - September 30, 1899 

First Battalion Field Day - - - May 23, 1900 

Salute to the New Century - - - January i, 1901 

Personal Escort of President Roosevelt in Yale 
Bi-Centennial Parade - - - October 16, 1901 

First Annual Indoor Meet - - February 21, 1902 

Camp Parker Dedicated - - - - July 4, 1902 

In Army and Navy Maneuvers, August 30 
to--------- September 6, 1902 

Beat Champions in Eleven-Inning Game of 
Indoor Baseball ------ March 11, 1903 

Duty at Camp Reynolds - - - August 22-29, 1903 

Re-stocking of the Library - November 18, 1903 

Elfrida in Hartford Waters - - June 19-25, 1904 

On the U. S. S. Hartford - September 6-13, 1904 

Indoor Baseball Champions for Season 1904-1905 

Hampton Roads ----- August 1-6, 1907 

In Bridge Parade - - - - October 8, 1908 

Wall-Scaling Champions - - - April 29, 1909 

First Memorial Sunday - - - June 13, 1909 

Off Bermuda ------ July 26-29, 1910 



FIRST COMMANDING OFFICER 




LIEUTENANT FELTON PARKER 



FOREWORD 



THAT the Xaval Division is worthy of a history 
in enduring form is undeniable ; that it is 
worthy of a historian of more philosophy and 
patience is also undeniable. But if the principle 
is correct that "any weather is better than none," as Mark 
Twain, who once produced a treatise on navigation which 
ho called "Following the Equator," summarized his opin- 
ion of the elements, then it may be correct to allege that 
this history is better than no attempt. From newspaper 
files which have long lain in unhallowed dust, from scrap- 
books long undisturbed, from orders and records and liter- 
ature which has received no generic name and from the 
lips of survivors of a glorious but ancient day the 
historian has drawn the facts which follow. The research 
work has been difficult and a task of no mean proportion, 
as well, and the work of arrangement and assimilation 
has not been inconsiderable, and there is reasonable 
excuse for any errors which may appear in the printed 
result. For these the historian begs indulgence. He de- 
sires to add that the task has been a pleasant one in spite 
of the difficulty and that his only regret is that a history 
more adequate is not the result. 

In any case the trail has been blazed, or, to use a 
more appropriate metaphor, the channel has been buoyed 
for him who is destined to produce a suitable volume 
when the Second Division shall have arrived at its twenty- 
fifth anniversary. That the command may continue 
to prosper and that it may ever be as efficient and suc- 
cessful as in its most honorable days is the earnest wish 
of its chronicler. 



10 



SECOND l^lIVTSION NA\AL MILITIA 



Thanks are expressed to Lieutenant (Junior Grade) 
Charles L. Hogan and ( Quartermaster Palmer (the divi- 
sion librarian) of the aetives and to Victor F. Morgan, 
historian of the Veteran Association, for aid given in 
the collating of material for this httle volume. Thanks 
are also given to Captain Louis F. Middlebrook and 
J\lr. Fred E. Bosworth. 

HAKTi'oKi), Connecticut. June 28, 191 1. 




CAPTAIN LOUIS F. MIDDI^EBROOK 
THE FOUNDER OF THE DIVISION 



BEFORE THE LAUNCHING 

IN the early 'nineties the so-called, and perhaps mis- 
called movement for "Naval Reserves" came into 
Connecticut. In 1893 it gathered shape in New Haven 
and on the petition of Edward G. Buckland and 
forty-four others. General Edward E. Bradley of New 
Haven, adjutant-general under Governor Luzon B. Mor- 
ris, issued an order for the formation of the First Divi- 
sion, Naval Militia, C. N. G. In November of that year 
a division was organized, a month pregnant with mean- 
ing in the annals of the naval establishment of Connecti- 
cut, for it marked the institution of a branch destined to 
endure and to be a just cause of pride to the state of 
Hull, Gideon Welles and Foote. 

The formation of the First Division followed barely 
two years after that of the First Naval Battalion in 
New York state. Massachusetts had preceded the Empire 
State by more than fifteen months, and Rhode Island 
by about a year, and when the command in New Haven 
organized, the states which boasted naval militia organ- 
izations were Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, 
North Carolina. South Carolina, California, Pennsylvania 
and Illinois. The total strength of the naval militia in 
these states was about 2.100 officers and enlisted men. 

It was in March. 1890, that the first command of the 
kind appeared in ]\Iassachusetts, and in the following 
May that the Naval Battalion, Massachusetts Volunteer 
Militia, pioneer among "Naval Reserve" organizations in 
the United States, was organized. From that germ has 
grown a system which now includes naval militia bodies 



12 SECOND DIVISION N.WAL MILITIA 

in twenty-three states and has on the rosters between 
seven thousand and eight thousand officers and enhsted 
men ; and has recorded several times that number of 
ahimni who are in part trained for the country's hour 
of need on salt water. 

Interesting stories about the First Division of New 
Haven came to the ears of many lovers of salt water in 
Hartford. Stories they were of the splendid success of 
that crack command, the good times which the fun lovers 
of the company enjoyed, the good fellowship shown, the 
capacity for hard technical work and the growing esteem 
in which it was held both by the adjutant- general's office 
and the Navy Department at Washington. And so it 
was that a little knot of similar spirits in Hartford was 
formed, men with fondness for yachting on the Sound 
or with patriotic pride in the Navy who gravitated 
together after a nucleus had been developed. 

The proposition for a naval company was received 
with a diversity of opinion. One military man of ripe 
experience raked it fore and aft in print, but in after 
years he discovered the error of his range finder and 
became a firm friend of the command in fair weather and 
foul. His memory long remained green with the company. 



THE LAUNCHING 



IT is recorded that most of the originators of this 
movement were employees of the Pope Manufacturing 
Company or were members of the Hartford Canoe 

Chib, and that some were himinaries in a social body 
known to fame as The Bachelors, but this last declaration 
is disputed. It was on March 14, 1896, that an application 
to Governor O. Vincent Coffin of Middletown, Com- 
mander-in-chief of the Connecticut National Guard, for 
the establishing of another division was drafted. The 
paper was guardedly circulated by Louis F. Middlebrook, 
then a member of the Brigade Signal Corps, to whom in 
large measure the credit of the subsequent birth of the 
command is due. On April 1 1 the application was pre- 
sented to His Excellency together with details as to the 
cost of equipment, armory quarters and like matters. 
Just eighteen days later the governor's consent was sig- 
nified in an order which Adjutant-General Charles P. 
Graham issued for the formation of the Second Division, 
Naval Battalion, Connecticut National Guard. That date 
is entered in the division's log as its natal day. 

On the evening of May 12, Commander Edward V. 
Reynolds of the battalion and officers from the division in 
New Haven materialized in the even then ancient armory 
on Elm Street, never before that night used for any naval 
object. A division was formed and officers were elected 
as follows : 

Lieutenant, Felton Parker. 

Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Lyman B. Perkins. 

Ensigns, Louis F. Middlebrook and Robert H. C. 
Kelton. 



14 



SECOND DIVISION N.WAL MILITIA 



Mr. Parker was a graduate of Annapolis, who had 
left the Navy at the reduction in 1882. and was at the 
time in the employ of the Pope Manufacturing Company 
in the patent department. Mr. Perkins had graduated in 
1881 from Annapolis as a cadet engineer. He was a 
general agent for the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection 
and Insurance Company. Mr. iMiddlebrook was iii the 
same company's employ and possessed large executive 
ability. Mr. Kelton was a mechanical engineer in the 
employ of the Hartford Rubber Works. He had been a 
member of Division C of the First Xaval Battalion of 
Massachusetts. 



The enlisted men were forty in number, 
names follow : 



Their 



Alden, H. W. 
Baxter. G. S. 
Beale, G. W. 
Bevins, V. L. 
Bissell, H. G. 
Bosworth, F. E. 
Burnett, A. E. 



Fairfield, E. J. 
Field, E. B. 
Field, F. E. 
Gilbert, E. R. 
Harlow, M. P. 
Heymann. H. B. 
Hunt, B. A. 



Burnham, P. D.* Ingalls, F. C. 
Caswell, L. S. Larkum, H. FI. 



Cheney, T. S.* 
Cochran, L. B. 
Crowell. E. H. 
Cuntz, H. F. 



Larkum, W. N. 
Maxim, H. P. 
Miller, G. P. 
Miller, H. I. 
Morgan, I. H. 



Morrell, D. S. 
Newell, J. L. 
Northam, R. C. 
Osgood, W. J. 
Rice, C. D. 
Root, Lyman 
Stevens, H. 
Walsh, J. G. 
Wightman, A. H. 
Williams, C. C. 
Wilson, L. B. 
Winslow, F. G. 
Woodward, C. S. 



The division was the armory's bal)y and the sailor 
uniform and the sailor drill were observed with the 
greatest of kindly interest ; and, by the way, that interest 
survives to this day. 

15v the middle of June the company was in fairish 
shape in regard to uniform and eciuipment. but was shy 



* Deceased. 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 15 

of flat caps. On the evening of June 24 the first petty 
ofiicers were appointed, the selections being awaited with 
the keenest curiosity. The appointees were : 

First Class — Boatswain's Mate, Daniel S. Morrell ; 
Gunner's Mate, Louis B. Wilson. 

Second Class — Boatswain's Mate, Edward H. Crow- 
ell ; Gunner's Mate, Walter' L. Meek ; Quartermasters, 
Thomas S. Cheney and Edwin R. Gilbert. 

Third Class — Gunner's Mate, Charles D. Rice ; Cox- 
swains, Robert C. Northam, Frank H. Peltier and 
Herman E. Cuntz. and Bugler Herbert G. Bissell. 

On the same June evening, orders were read to stand 
by for the division's first cruise. That duty was on the 
U. S. S. Cincinnati, a protected cruiser. 



COURSE ONE 

THE CLXCIXXATI 

AT 6:45 Saturday morning, July 11, the division 
/\ to the number of forty-six entrained for New 
/ \ Haven and by 8 o'clock was on board the Cin- 
cinnati, as she lay off the breakwater. An hour 
later the cruiser weighed anchor and headed down the 
Sound, landing the divisions of the battalion on Gardiner's 
Island, where they went into camp. Till late Sunday 
evening it was hard work and plenty of it, but the mettle 
of the division was shown in the test. Part of Sunday 
evening was spent in "hustling ice," as one member ex- 
pressed it in a letter. Near by were naval militiamen 
from Rhode Island and New York. 

Alonday morning found the division embarking for 
the Cincinnati, on which instruction was given during the 
day in gun, fire and collision drills. For the great majority 
of the men it was their first real experience in work on a 
warship, and the novelty and excitement were fascinating. 
The following day there was drill in pulling boats with 
the new coxswains on their mettle. 

A couple of days more of life in camp and on the Cin- 
cinnati with good weather did much towards starting the 
men toward man-o'-war form, or so some of them began 
to think. Tanned faces, pipes and plug tobacco came into 
full evidence. For some it was, perhaps, a picnic in the 
open salt air, but an outing in which discipline was strictly 
preserved and much practical information was acquired. 

Thursday morning reveille was sounded at Camp 
McAdoo at 5 o'clock and simultaneously rain began to 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 17 

fall. After mess the battalion struck the tents, turned to 
on camp gear and transferred nine boatloads from the 
island to the Cincinnati. Most of the men were in water 
to their waists. Between the fresh and the salt they were 
not incompletely drenched, but their hearts were gay and 
when the boats were hove up they tailed on the falls 
with a will. 

In New Haven there was a short street parade and 
when, in the Meadow Street Armory, the First Division 
boys saluted and cheered the Second, the tour of duty 
was pronounced to be a glorious success. On the station 
platform in Hartford on the arrival of the Second Divi- 
sion that evening was a motley of fathers and mothers, 
kid brothers, best girls and other landlubbers, all eager 
to welcome the homefaring tin tars. The men fell in on 
the platform and gave this highly original cheer : 

"Hi, ye-ke, hi ! Ree, Ree, Ree ! 
Naval Battalion, C. N. G. 
Second Division." 
This may sound at this distant day like a rather 
slender battle cry, but the boys of the division ranked it 
with the "Brek-e-Ke-Kex" of the Yale Gridiron. 

The historian admits giving undue prominence to that 
tour of duty, but begs indulgence on the ground that it 
was the division's first service on salt water. 



COURSE TWO 

THE MAINE 

IN a few months the division was carefully recruited 
and when the drill season started it was little effort 
for jack o' the dust to report a tidy sum in the treas- 
ury. The division parlor was artistically decorated. 
Along the frieze was painted a stretch of blue water of 
dipsy hue on which was developed some of the most star- 
tling advances in shipbuilding. A craft of the time of 
Hiero, a Roman galley, a Viking ship, a French frigate of 
the sixteenth century, a warship of Revolutionary days, 
one of the time of Hull and then the battleship Indiana 
were pictured. In a way the series traced the develop- 
ment of sea power. 

The months of that drill season wore by pleasantly, 
the boys at work mainly at infantry, for somehow in those 
days the real province of naval militiamen was not clearly 
lined out. but with a bit of single-stick work and some 
signalling, and when the end of the season arrived most 
of the men were well acquainted with the work which had 
been laid out. 

It was on the battleship Maine that the yearly lessons 
afloat were learned. The battleship Texas had been 
assigned for the duty, but it became necessary to dry dock 
her for repairs, and her sister ship took her place. Ensign 
Louis F. Middlebrook with Boatswain's Mate Crowell. 
Quartermaster Wightman, Coxswains Osgood and Meek 
and Seamen Doran, Mather. J. Morgan Wells, Gilbert 
and Baxter constituted the baggage detail, which 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 19 

sailed from the steamboat landing" at / 130 on the morning 
of Saturday. July 17, on the tug ]. Warren Coulston for 
Fisher's Island. 

The detail pitched camp on rising ground in the rear 
of the Hotel Munnatawket, not far from the site of the 
battalion's camp some five years later. 

The Maine lay at anchor in Fisher's Island Sound. 
The remainder of the division went by rail to New Haven 
on the following Monday morning and sailed for the 
island on the steamer Richard Law. The two divisions 
with the engineer branch and the staff made the battalion 
nearly 140 strong. 

Captain Sigsbee was in command of the ship, the same 
dfficer who was in command when the tragedy in the har- 
bor of Havana happened seven months later. His face 
became familiar to most of our men. as did also that of 
Lieutenant W'ainwright, executive officer at the time of 
the explosion, and when that tragedy came the horror 
had a personal as well as a patriotic interest for many 
members of the Second Division, who remembered by 
name and face many a man in the ship's coanplement. 

Most of the work was at Camp Long or in small 
boats, but not a little was on the ship, where gun drill 
was among the most interesting of the branches. A lec- 
ture on the Whitehead torpedo was a feature of the 
curriculum. 

One afternoon during the tour of duty on the Elaine, 
the signal squads of the First and the Second Divisions 
met in a contest for a trophy cup and the squad from the 
Second won. The winning team included Quartermasters 
■Cheney and Wightman and Seamen Bosworth and 
V. ^Morgan. 

It is interesting to hark back to the Maine days and to 
record that a racing cutter crew was evolved and that it 
received some, if not much, instruction and encourage- 
ment from men on the Alaine. Out of the mist of that 



20 SECOND DIXISION XA\AL MILITIA 

week it is recorded that this crew was made up of these 
oarsmen : First, Seaman Baxter ; Second, Quartermaster 
Wightman ; Third, Coxwain Osgood ; Fourth, Seaman 
Wells ; Fifth, Gunner's Mate Root ; Sixth, Seaman 
Havens ; Seventh, Seaman Gilbert ; Eighth, Boatswain's 
Mate Morrell ; Ninth, Coxswain Northam ; Tenth, Seaman 
Ingalls ; Eleventh, Gunner's Mate Cuntz, and Twelfth, 
Seaman J. Morgan. Without experience the crew con- 
tested with the crack twelve of the New Haven Division 
and was beaten only by three-quarters of a boat length. 

The Hartford Division returned on the tugs Coulston 
and Mabel, arriving at the steamboat landing in the early 
evening. 



COURSE THREE 



THE WAR 



BARELY was the next drill season well inaugu- 
rated when the Maine sailed for Havana, 
and then came the terrible disaster in which 
many of the division's shipmates were hurled 
into eternity, and next the preparation for the 
approaching conflict with Spain. In April, the 
First Regiment marched away, the division remaining 
eager for the coming call. Each drill evening the men 
put heart, energy and sustained attention into the work. 
Drills took place on the park in the presence of citizens 
who paid their tributes of respect to the sailor blue. Each 
member was urged to train physically, as well as to learn 
the drills. Seamanship, signalling and such boat work 
as could be taught were the backbone of the instruction. 
Finally the call came and over ninety per cent, of the 
division volunteered at roll call to enlist in the United 
States Navy for the entire conflict. On June 6, the divi- 
sion paraded in heavy marching order up Main Street 
and by Trumbull and Asylum Streets to the railroad sta- 
tion, escorted by posts of the Grand Army and by veteran 
and active military commands, and entrained for the State 
Military Rendezvous in Niantic. 

On June 15, Commander Field, U. S. N., mustered in 
the command thenceforward known as the "war com- 
pany." Following are the names and the ages with ratings 
obtained before the mustering out and with the names of 
the ships on which each individual mainly served : 



22 



SECOND DR'ISION NANAL MILITIA 



Henry S. r>al(l\viii. G. M., ist class, 
Artluir W. liarber, Landsman, 
George S. Baxter, Coxswain, 
Robert C. Beers, Landsman, 
Howard Pierry, Ordinary Seaman. 
Henry W. Bigelow, Seaman, 
Herbert G. Bissell, Ordinary Seaman, 
Fred G. Blakeslee, Seaman, 
Fred E. Bosworth, Quartermaster, 
Arthur L. Brewer, Seaman, 
George Brinley, Seaman, 
John H. P. Brinley, Seaman, 
Henry R. Brck, Seaman, 
Joseph F. Burke, Landsman, 
Archibald L. Case, Seaman, 
Henry B. Case, Landsman, 
Robert D. Chapin, Seaman, 
Murray H. Coggeshall, Q.AL, ist Class, 
George F. Colby, Landsman, 
Arthur S. Cutting, Landsman, 
Hermann F. Cuntz, Ensign U. S. N., 
Stanley K. Dimock, Seaman, 
Edward J. Doran, Ship's Apothecary, 
Henry W. Drury, Seaman, 
Francis E. Field, Seaman, 
George C. Forrest, O. M., 3d Class, 
George Foster, Coal Passer, 
Paul Franke, Landsman, 
Burton L. Gabrielle, Ordinary Seaman, 
Christopher M. Gallup, Fireman, 
William A. Geer, Landsman, 
Frank W. Gillette, Ordinary Seaman, 
William Goulet, Landsman, 
James J. Hawley, Q. M., 2d Class, 
George A. Holcomb, Ord. Seaman, 
Richard J. Holmes, Ordinary Seaman, 
Charles A. Huntington, Chief G. M., 



24 


Seminole 


25 


Minnesota 


22 


Wyandotte 


26 


Catskill 


20 


Wyandotte 


30 


Minnesota 


24 


iMinnesota 


30 


Minnesota 


23 


Minnesota 


21 


Minnesota 


26 


Wyandotte 


23 


Wyandotte 


22 


East Boston 


22 


Wyandotte 


23 


jMinnesota 


19 


Alinnesota 


22 


Minnesota 


25 


Wyandotte 


21 


Wyandotte 


20 


Minnesota 


26 


Sylvia 


20 


Seminole 


24 


Minnesota 


22 


Minnesota 


25 


Minnesota 


29 


W}andotte 


23, 


WVandotte 


24 


jAlinnesota 


20 


Minnesota 


22 


East Boston 


27 


iMinnesota 


23 


Wyandotte 


22 


Minnesota 


27 


.Seminole 


22 


Seminole 


25 


Minnesota 


25 


Wyandotte 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 



23 



William Al. Hnrd, Seaman. 
Edward O. Jackson, Ord. Seaman, 
Lorenzo W. Kenyon, Seaman, 
Frank R. Keyes, Chief Quartermaster, 
Frank E. Kowalsky, Coal Passer, 
Arthur P. LeFever, Landsman, 
Michael C. Long, G. M., 2d Class, 
Oliver W. Alalm, Seaman, 
George R. Alartin, Ord. Seaman, 
Ralph W. AlcCreary, B. M., ist Class, 
J. Ward McAIanus, Seaman. 
Louis F. Middlebrook, Ens'n. L'.S.X.. 
Guy P. Miller, Seaman. 
Hugh L Miller, Seaman. 
James H. Morgan. Q. AL, ist Class, 
Victor F. Morgan. Seaman, 
Shiras Alorris, Coxswain, 
Linwood K. Aloses, Landsman, 
Carl C. Nielson, Wardroom Steward, 
Edward J. Noble, Ordinary Seaman, 
Edwin T. Northam. Seaman. 
Robert C. Northam, G. AL, 2d Class, 
Harry Y. Nutter, Seaman, 
Lauriston F. L. Pynchon, Seaman, 
Judson B. Root. Ordinary Seaman, 
Harrison Sanford. Ordinary Seaman, 
Charles C. Saunders. Seaman. 
Felton Parker, Lieutenant, L. S. N., 
Lyman Root, Ensign, U. S. N., 
Otto AL Schwerdtfeger, Landsman, 
Albert W. Scoville, Jr., Seaman. 
Lester H. Scoville, Ordinary Seaman. 
^^'i!liam H. Scrivener, Seaman, 
Frederic A. Seaver, Landsman, 
Freeman P. Seymour, Ord. Seaman, 
Forrest Shepherd, Seaman, 
Herbert E. Storrs, Seaman, 



23 


jMinnesota 


23 


Minnesota 


20 


Alinnesota 


21 


AVyandotte 


21 


Seminole 


19 


Minnesota 


28 


Wyandotte 


25 


Minnesota 


19 


^Minnesota 


22 


\\'yandotte 


23 


[Minnesota 


32 


Enquirer 


23 


Alinnesota 


25 


Minnesota 


23 


.Seminole 


18 


Minnesota 


23 


Wyandotte 


20 


Minnesota 


25 


Seminole 


23 


Minnesota 


23 


Minnesota 


25 


Minnesota 


26 


Minnesota 


26 


Minnesota 


22 


Minnesota 


21 


\\'yandotte 


22 


Alinnesota 


38 


Huntress 


29 


Elfrida 


22 


jMinnesota 


21 


East Boston 


20 


East Boston 


21 


Minnesota 


34 


Minnesota 


34 


Minnesota 


28 


W}'andotte 


19 


East Boston 



24 



SECOND DIVISION NAVAL MILITIA 



JMorton C. Talcott, Landsman, 
George H. Tinkham, Landsman. 
William C. Tregoning, Seaman, 
John F. Tvvardoks, Landsman, 
Jonathan K. Uhler, Seaman, 
James D. Wells, Seaman, 
Richard B. Wells, Coxswain, 
Alanson H. Wightman, Q. M., ist CI., 
George E. Wilcox, Ord. Seaman, 
Louis B. Wilson, B. M., ist Class, 
Frank L. Young, Cabin Steward, 

From Niantic the division went to the receiving ship 
Minnesota at the Congress Street slip in the Charlestown 



20 


Alinnesota 


22 


Wyandotte 


22 


Seminole 


21 


Minnesota 


24 


Minnesota 


^?> 


Minnesota 


29 


Seminole 


26 


Seminole 


21 


Minnesota 


26 


Seminole 


19 


Wyandotte 





DIVISION BOAT RACK IN BOSTON HARBOR 



Navy Yard. At one time and another officers were de- 
tailed and men were drafted to vessels of the "Mosquito 
fleet," and these were scattered all the w^ay down the 
coast to Key West and the Havana Blockade, Ensign 
Cuntz on the Sylvia having the good fortune to see the 
Morro. 



COURSE FOUR 



THE PRAIRIE 

FOLLOWING the excitement of the war summer 
came a reaction. The membership dropped nearly 
to the danger point. For a time it was a long and 
hard beat to windward, a trying fight with wind, 
wave and tide. Like every command from Connecticut 
which served in the war with Spain, the division found 
many of its best members returning to civilian ranks, 
and that to replace them either numerically or in quality 
required time and activity. But new blood — or what 
might be called a saline infusion — came, and before the 
snows melted the division had weathered the worst. 

It was the Prairie which was the division's floating 
home on the cruise taken in the following August. On 
the 1 6th the battalion sailed from New Haven harbor. 
Two days later the ship was off Gloucester, home of dar- 
ing fishermen, and the next day she was in Bar Harbor. 
On the 2ist she put out to sea. She passed outside Nan- 
tucket Shoals Lightship and opportunity was given to the 
men for target practice with great guns at sea, after sub- 
caliber coming full service charges. On their return 
members of the division spun exciting yarns concerning 
diluted saltpeter, embalmed horsehide, hammock ladders 
and raids on the officers' refrigerator. 

It is to be chronicled that thirteen states were 
represented in naval militia cruises on the Prairie in 1899 
and that Connecticut took third rank among them ; also 
that the Hartford division won first place among the 
three divisions from Connecticut, Bridgeport having 
orgfanized the Third Division. 



-DEWEY DAY" 

PROBABLY the most memorable occasion in the 
liistory of the command was September 30, 1899, 
"Dewey Day," the day of the giant procession in 
New York City in honor of the fine old hero of 
Manila Bay. When the organizations to represent this 
state were selected, it was the Naval Battalion which 




LIKUTENANT-COMMANDKR LYMAN ROOT 

headed the list of lioiior. I'he h^irst Regiment was not 
upon the list, but with honoral)le patriotism officers of 
the regiment who had served in Cam]) Alger re(juested of 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 27 

Lieutenant Lyman Root, Lieutenant Parker's successor, 
permission to wear the sailor blue and carry Spring- 
fields in the division ranks. Men who had served in distant 
years in the wooden navy and men who had fought under 
Dyer in Manila Bay and Wainwright in the combat with 
the Furor and the Pluton and had returned to Hartford, 
also asked and received the same permission. 

With four officers and 112 men the division swung 
out from the armory on the evening of the 29th and amid 
red fire and with a band blaring at the front paraded to 
the railroad station, envied by infantrymen who could not 
obtain opportunity to march in the mammoth procession. 
At II o'clock the company marched into the Second 
Regiment Armory in New Haven, stacked arms and was 
dismissed for a midnight lunch, at which the men stowed 
away steaming coffee and ham sandwiches and received 
strict orders not to leave the building. Then they made 
living pillows of one another and slumbered innocently 
on benches in the gallery till some wee, sma' hour or 
other in the morning, when the Second Regiment crashed 
out with "Onward Christian Soldiers," and summoned 
them back to the world of consciousness and sin. At 
3 o'clock they fell in and marched out into a hospitable 
rain punctuated by milkmen and policemen. Three- 
quarters of an hour later they boarded the side-wheeler 
Shinnecock. At 4 o'clock the steamer got under way 
and the men began to look forward to a night of rest. 
One man slept on his arm under a table in the dining 
saloon piled six feet high with camp chairs. Another 
was lost to the world under the break of the pilot house. 
Still another slept on unbaled hay for the field officers of 
the Second Regiment. Some slumbered in gangways 
and some on the paddle boxes. The mathematical boys ' 
of the division demonstrated the problem that it was 
possible to sleep anywhere in space. 

Somewhere in the head of the Sound the Shinnecock 
fell on an evil time. A bushing on a feathering paddle 



28 SECOND DIVISION NAN'AL MILITIA 

blade in the starboard wheel misbehaved and a bar 
buckled and for three hours she drifted while engineers 
made repairs. Finally an emergency landing was made 
in a convenient coal yard in Port Morris and the battalion 
trotted at double time for two miles over Harlem cobble- 
stones, arriving just in time to fall in ahead of General 
Oliver (J. Howard and the Grand Army Division. 

During the march the men had a coveted opportunity 
to view the one-armed corps commander at close range. 
Much of the time the old hero was obliged to ride with 
his bridle rein in his teeth and with his chapeau in his 
hand in response to the frantic waves of applause which 
greeted him. The occupants of the closely packed stands 
along the line of march rose in wildly cheering masses 
as they caught sight of the grizzled veteran and the men 
of the Grand Army of the Republic 

Down Riverside Drive and for four miles in the heart 
of the city the battalion marched with fixed bayonets. 
It paraded between solid masses of cheering citizens and 
almost solid walls of flags and decorations. At every halt 
the men were refreshed with fruit, coffee or drinkables, 
sandwiches and salads or cigars, and presented with 
flowers and souvenirs. At one halt on aristocratic Fifth 
Avenue a shower of silk college sofa cushions came down 
from window seats and a Princeton cushion was impaled 
on the historian's bayonet. 

At the conclusion of the parade many of the division 
repaired to restaurants near Madison Square and Union 
Square. Dozens of them found, when they stepped to the 
cashiers' coops to liquidate, that unknown civilians had 
obtained their checks and paid the bills. A man in a 
sailor imiform in New York City that September after- 
noon found it no easy task to spend money. Nothing 
was too good for the bluejackets. 

It is to be recorded that Lieutenant Cuntz, Gunner's 
Mate Huntington, Coxswain Chapin and Seamen 
Noble and Nutter preceded the battalion to New York. 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 29 

When the Shinnecock failed to appear, they annexed three 
stray regulars from the U. S. S. Texas, and assumed an 
advanced place in the column. In one of the spectators' 
stands certain individuals conceived the notion that the 
eight were Plobson and the Merrimac survivors. In a 
few moments the word was passed over the stand and the 
crowd was on its feet in a wild burst of applause. 

While Dewey Day experiences were still being talked 
over, arrangements were quietly made for a presentation 
to the first commanding officer, Air. Parker, who was 
lured to Turnerbund Hall to receive from the command a 
gold watch with chain and fob, the chain in the semblance 
of a stud-link ship's cable and the fob a division pin 
mounted on a locket. 

More of the tang of salt air and of the romance of 
the ocean came one evening in the next drill season when 
the division mustered in the parlor to listen to a talk by 
Professor Henry Ferguson of Trinity College, an honor- 
ary member, who told a thrilling tale of shipwreck in the 
mid-Pacific. Professor Ferguson recited the story of the 
Hornet, a clipper which sailed from New York in 18G6 
for San Francisco. When the ship w^as several hundred 
miles off the Gallipagos fire obliged the crew to take to 
the three boats, which were provisioned for ten days. 
It was decided to head for the north, to keep in the track 
of San Francisco vessels. Merchantmen in those days 
adhered to Maury's sailing directions and it was reasoned 
that chances would be better in the sea highway than in 
attemipting to reach land. By day the heat was nearly 
intolerable. Nights were treacherous as they induced 
sc[ualls of the vindictively sudden nature peculiar to those 
Ecjuatorial waters. Day after day wore by with an un- 
broken 'horizon. Finally the boats crawled up into the 
trade winds. It was decided to separate the boats to 
increase the chance of finding aid. For twenty-five days 
the sailors had fought wind, sun, and water and now 



30 SECOND DIVISION NAVAL MILITIA 

they were in dano^er of fighting starvation, the ten davs' 
provisions, wliich had been distributed into one-third 
allowances, being nearly exhausted. The remaining 
provisions were in turn re-divided, but were gone in a 
fortnight. The men surviving sought nourishment in 
the chewing of leather and moist clothing. On the point 
of utter exhaustion they made a landfall, which proved to 
be Hawaii, and were rescued by a crew from a coasting 
station. They had spent forty-three days in an open boat 
and had traveled nearly three thousand miles. 

More of the romance of the sea came to the division 
when the story of a "war member," William Hurd, and 
the schooner Intrepid was told. Less than a month after 
Professor Ferguson's lecture, Hurd cleared in New York 
with his little auxiliary as a trader to carry trinkets, tin 
jewelry, Yankee notions, canned soups, linens and what- 
not to ])aran([uila and to acquire cocoanuts and rubber 
on the Aloscjuito Coast and islands nearby. His auxiliary 
was sixty-one feet on the water line and eighteen feet 
beam and thirt\-five gross tonnage, or twenty-eight net. 
She had a powerful gasoline motor. After she cleared, 
Colombian insurrectionists captured Baranquila and 
Hurd's friends in the division began to wonder what 
would hai)pen to their former shipmate if an insurrecto 
otfficer ranged alongside with more of an appetite for 
grindstones, canned soups and tin jewelry than for inter- 
national law. But Hurd was able to take care of hinlself. 
He prospered as a trader, made a bushel of money, spent 
it and finally returned. 

At the annual banquet of 1900. Admiral Bunce, U.S.X., 
retired, was a guest and in his speech pointed out 
that foreign intelligence officers knew full well that seven- 
tenths of the arms and ammunition made for the govern- 
ment came from Connecticut. In response to a toast 
another speaker, iM-ancis B Allen, said: 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 31 

"It was one of your honorary members, our distin- 
guished Admiral Bunce, who, while in command of the 
North Atlantic Squadron just prior to the Spanish War, 
brought not only the fleet but each individual ship to such 
a degree of excellence in squadron evolutions and gun 
drills that he enabled his successors to acquit themselves 
so creditably that Sunday morning outside Santiago 
Bay when Cervera's squadron tried to escape that the 
result afforded us the greatest Fourth of July celebration 
since Vicksburg surrendered." 

A month later Ensign Middlebrook launched the 
Veteran Association down well-greased ways, and on 
May 23 the battalion had its first field day. assembling at 
Savin Rock. It was reserved for Gunner's Mate Chapin 
to make known to Hartford a new method of celebrating 
the Fourtli of July. He navigated a picked gun crew at 
the close of the midwatch from the armory to the City 
Hall and at sunrise pumped out a salute of twenty-one 
shots from the lean throat of a Hotchkiss one-pounder. 
Irate sleepers admitted that Chapin's method was con- 
vincing. They were justly incensed when he marched 
the crew under the Asylum Street bridge and fired a like 
salute, and still more so when he took it to the Park 
Terrace and discharged a fourteen-shot salute. Chapin 
proposed to fire a salute in Wethersfield, but ammunition 
ran low. 



COURSE FIVE 

THE PRAIRIE AGAIN 

THAT summer's cruise was on the Prairie and 
led to Penobscot Bay. The division sent in a 
whaleboat crew to race against one from the 
First Division on that water, and its crew 
defeated that from the Ehn City by a quarter of a length, 
one of the New Haven oilicers marveling at this result 
and asserting that it was a mystery of the deep. It also 
captured two other boat races. 

Later in the summer camping parties spent week-ends 
in Paradise, the narrow strip between Bodkin Rock and 
the river a short distance below Middletown. The divi- 
sion's steamboat and the pulling boats which had come a 
season or two before were in popular favor. They gave 
silent lessons to the boys in boat engine work and in the 
stowing of dunnage, thereby adding variety to the oars- 
men's drill of the early spring. 

December 22, Lieutenant Parker died at his home in 
South Lancaster, ]\Iass., mourned by all who knew him. 
A patriotic officer, a loyal friend, he had won the affection 
of the command. 

One minute prior to midnight December 31, two gun 
crews unlimbered in the rear of the City Hall and on the 
dot of midnight, the opening of the new century. Gunner's 
Mate Chapin fired the first shot in a salute of twenty-one 
guns, a welcome to the newborn heir of time. 

Century No. Twenty's first gift to the division was 
an indoor baseball team. The sport was new to the 
armory and it jumped (or slid) into instant favor. The 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 33 

first game was with a team from Company A and to the 
astonishment of everybody and most of all themselves 
the sailors won, by a score of 17 to 12. They contended 
with a hurricane of batting in the second inning and 
dragged anchor, but they weathered the storm and won 
with an inning to spare. One of the division advocated 
a diamond of this kind : 

Home plate on the forecastle near the foremast, for 
baseline the starboard foremast shrouds and for first base 
the foretop ; along main topmast stay to second base, the 
main topmasthead ; down main topmast rigging to third 
base, the main top ; then down the mainstay and on to the 
point of beginning. Xone of the other teams would play 
on that diamond. 

In a sham battle held in the armory in Governor 
^McLean's honor the division had a conspicuous part and 
in the spring the battalion had its field day in the South 
Meadow. Governor McLean had appointed ^Ir. Aliddle- 
brook to be naval aide on his staff, with the rank of 
captain, the highest rank which any member has obtained 
in the Connecticut naval militia, later naval-aides having 
the rank of lieutenant-commanders. 



COURSE SIX 

TO CAAIP NEWTON 

THE tliird anniversary of the mustering in of the 
battaHon at Niantic was observed by an outing 
at Woodmont, followed by a week-end cruise 
on the Elfrida, the converted yacht once owned 
b>- W. Seward Webb and purchased by the government 
at the breaking out of the war with Spain. At a banquet 
in the Pembroke Hotel at Woodmont. General Edward E. 
Bradley, adjutant-general when the Eirst Division organ- 
ized, and Senator Joseph R. Hawley were speakers. 

j\Iaster-at-Arms Murphy trained a volunteer racing 
cutter crew at intervals in the course of the summer, 
bitterly lamenting that he never had the same men two 
evenings running. Still he had men who were fairly 
proficient when the battalion bad its annual tour of duty, 
at Camp Newton on Eisher's Island. Tent life was 
varied by considerable work in pulling boats. It was 
expected that a cutter race would be rowed between the 
Hartford racing crew and a crew picked from the New 
Haven and Bridgeport Division, but the latter did not 
materialize. That spectators might not be disappointed, 
two crews were selected from the Hartford oarsmen, 
Lieutenant Lyman Root acting as coxswain for one and 
Assistant Surgeon Carroll C. Beach for the other. 
Mr. Root's crew was inspired by the presence of Dick, 
the division's mascot, a corpulent bulldog with a blue 
flat cap cocked rakishly over one ear. With one hand on 
the tiller and the other on the dog's collar, Mr. Root 
incited his crew and won by a half-length in a course of 
half a mile. 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 35 

For most of the six days rain came down in buckets. 
The camp work was a practical lesson to the men of the 
division. That they returned healthy, well disciplined, 
and contented, as well as much more familiar with duty 
either afloat or ashore, demonstrated the learning capacity 
of the men and the value of the camp. 

On the return the Elfrida cast off, outside Saybrook 
Light, a tow consisting of the steam whaleboat and the 
division's cutter, its barge and its pulling whaleboat. 
The "whaler" with the pulling boat in tow started up the 
river, but a squall descended and gave work to all hands. 
The crews landed in Essex in torrents, and after making 
the boats snug for the night, turned in at a sail loft near 
the landing. 

In the autumn the division sustained another severe 
affliction in the death of its first honorary member, a firm 
friend in fair weather and foul, Admiral Francis M. 
Bunce, an officer whom it had been a rare privilege to 
honor. A veteran of the Civil War, a seasoned sailor, 
a loyal Hartford man who took pride in his townspeople, 
the Admiral had richly merited the division's high esteem. 
His strong, yet kindly face the men missed and mourned. 

In the autumn an order came for a parade in New 
Haven, and when the personal escort for President 
Roosevelt was selected, it was found to be the Naval 
Battalion; and when the parade started it was found that 
the senior division, the Second, was next to the 
President's carriage. 

Wall-scaling had a conspicuous part in the drill of the 
winter, and in the spring small boat work and volunteer 
work on the Elfrida, the battalion's practice vessel, were 
attractions for those most interested in the command. 
The Elfrida played her part well in the duty of the 
spring field day of 1902, when the battalion rendezvoused 
in Bridgeport. 

In June of that year a proposition to establish a 
summer camp took shape and at a meeting a subscription 



CONNECTICUT NATION.\L GUARD 37 

paper was opened and $200 was pledged in about fifteen 
minutes. A site was selected on the east bank of the 
river in South Glastonbury and nearly opposite Two 
Piers. Volunteers cleared the land of brush, assisted in 
driving a well, hauled lumber and materials up the steep 
ascent of 115 feet, aided the carpenters, and helped to 
furnish and arrange camp. They sought and obtained 
practical experience in cooking and camp life. It was 
decided to name the camp after the first commander of 
the division ; and to this day the building is known as 
Camp Parker. The spot was formally dedicated July 4th 
with speeches and an open-air dinner, at which the build- 
ing committee in due and ancient form turned the insti- 
tution over to the division. The house was equipped with 
hammocks and many a rooky has there learned how to 
pass a sailor's night. ]\'Iany a pleasant Sunday afternoon 
in midsummer has lured men of the division to the cool 
piazza with its noble view for many miles in three direc- 
tions, south, west and north. 



COURSE SEVEN 

THE PANTHER 

IN some respects the yearly cruise which started 
several weeks later was among the most memorable 
adventures of the division ; and iVhen some of the 

old hands* are spinning yarns about what they did 
when they were young, they like to hark back to the 
"sham war" and a certain hike across Montauk Point. 
The most extensive land and sea maneuvers in many 
years were arranged in Washington for a force of several 
thousand of the army and for practically all of the fine 
North Atlantic squadron of that year, of which Admiral 
Higginson, the captain of the Massachusetts in the Span- 
ish war. was in command. 

It was on the auxiliary cruiser Panther that the 
battalion served. The division boarded the ship in New 
London harbor. In the course of the service the Panther 
steamed as far east as Menemsha Bight and as far west 
as New London, the object of the maneuvers being to 
test in a practical way the defenses of the eastern entrance 
of Long Island Sound. At sundown of a Saturday the 
most powerful fleet to that time assembled in those 
waters was riding to anchor in the bight, awaiting the 
passage of the hours before midnight 'ere beginning 
maneuvers against the string of forts and signal stations 
scattered all the way from Woods Hole around to Mon- 
tauk. As night shut down, the signal lamps began their 
Ardois work. At midnight hoarse orders came from the 
Panther's bridge and the rattle of the steam winch and 
the heavy clank of the cable in the hawse pipe announced 
that the shi]) was getting under way. 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 39 

Sunday found the ship off Block Island and Monday 
evening found her heading north. Just as the watch off 
duty was beginning to snore peacefully, the bugle sounded 
the call for general cjuarters. In a moment the gun deck 
lights were switched on and ladders and hatches were 
choked with men piling to their stations. Masters-at-arms 
were unceremoniously rousting out rookies from their 
hammocks. In barely more time that it has taken to 
write this paragraph the guns were cast loose, ammunition 
was provided and the big naval bulldog was in fighting 
trim. 

One afternoon the battalion had boat drill. Cutters were 
lowered and with boat guns working and the landing party 
armed with rifles there was a pretty bit of excitement. 
A day later the heavy guns belched at a signal station 
ashore, which crumbled to theoretic dust. Then the naval 
militiamen were mustered at division cjuarters and a day's 
ration was issued to each man, a two-pound tin of canned 
beef to each pair of men and five or ten hard tack (or 
ship biscuit) to each man and a canteen full of water 
or coffee, as the man elected. The call came for arm and 
away boats. With a Colt automatic in the bow of each 
cutter the party landed, going into extended order, while 
a detail took possession of the telegraph and the telephone 
station. 

The long line of blue swarmed over a strip of sand 
and a bit of swale to a knoll. Then began two hours' 
hard work. Through wire grass and sand grass, through 
bushes and brush, across swamp and swale, by farm- 
houses and barns, alongside lily ponds, the bending blue 
line advanced, officers pointing the way with swords and 
squad leaders attempting to keep the files at eight pace' 
intervals. 

Following an advance of four miles in such manner 
the "enemy" was located behind the crest of a steep and 
hisfh hill. The order for a charge was given and with a 



40 SECOND DIVISION NAVAL MILITIA 

yell the men sprinted forward under a heavy shower of 
fireworks. Ensign Northam was the first up San Juan 
Hill and it was reported that the historian was the last 
to reach the summit. 

At this juncture the heavens opened and rain came 
down in buckets. After a quarter of an hour in the 
downpour the battalion started on the return of four 
miles. The hike was at route stc]). At the beach the 
oarsmen had a stifif pull against wind and tide in boats 
loaded to the gunwales. But the young salts were in 
fine spirits and when the order came to "shift to anything 
dry" it was received as a joke. 

The chief boatswain's mate of the Panther was C. K. 
Claussen, the Claussen who accompanied Hobson on the 
Merrimac and was confined in the Spanish prison near 
Santiago. 

At the end of the week, when the Panther left the 
squadron, her course lay between the Olympia, Dewey's 
flagship in the Battle of Manila Bay, and the Brooklyn, 
Schley's in the capture of Cervera. To each was given a 
salute with the bugle and the lining of the rail. The 
Brooklyn's band rendered a patriotic air. 

In the following fall the division took up target 
practice in real earnest and at a special shoot in the South 
Meadow Chief Gunner's Mate Herbert E. Wiley won 
the first place. Barely was this function over when it 
was decided to produce a comic opera and "The Mikado" 
was selected. This was presented in Parsons', so well 
that critics agreed that the division could sing as correctly 
as it could sail. 

In the winter the division tried its fortune again at 
indoor baseball, with varying results. On one occasion 
it played an exciting game with Company A, won the 
game, lost it and won it again, just clearing a lee shore 
by a score of 19 to 18. (Jn another it defeated the cham- 
pions of the armory in an eleven-inning contest. 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 



41 



The second annual indoor meet demonstrated that the 
series had arrived to stay, a fact which each February 
proves again. 

To extend its activities the division sent a picked gun 




BOAT CREW AT CHARI^ES ISLAND 

crew on an inland cruise to New Britain to give an exhi- 
bition drill. 

The field day was spent at Charles Island. To still 
further extend its activities the division crossed afoot 
from the island at low tide to the mainland. 



COURSE EIGHT 



AT N I ANTIC 

AMPHIBIOUS is the word to apply to the divi- 
#\ sion's tour of duty that summer. The steam 
^ ^ whaleboat, by this time christened "TilHe 
Hadley," by her fireman, Gunner's Mate Arnold, 
started down the river August 21, 1903, with the three 
pulling boats in tow, carrying nearly a quarter of the 
division. The following day the remainder boarded the 
Elfrida in New Haven harbor, and she with the First 
Division's small boats in tow steamed to Crescent Bay. 
A detail from each division spent eight days afloat and 
the rest divided their time between Camp Reynolds at 
the state military rendezvous at Niantic and boat drills 
in Crescent Bay. The boat work was popular, so much 
so that in a few days most of the oarsmen were approach- 
ing man-o'-war form. 

At the end of the duty a storm came along which 
gave work to militia, the seafaring population and land- 
lubbers. In the New York Herald of the next day it 
was printed : "Old seafaring men down that way say 
that they never saw the Sound rougher than it was that 
night." A sailboat was washed ashore at White Beach, 
two small sailing vessels dragged anchor near Niantic, 
a sloop was wrecked to the southwest of the Crescent 
Beach landing and a large three-masted schooner dragged 
anchor. 

Tlie Elfrida steamed out of the bay as the storm was 
breaking, on her way to Sandy Hook and the yacht races 
with Governor Chamberlain on board. The sou'wester 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 43 

rose into a gale. Seas broke high over the weather rail 
to fly across the engine room skylight. The officers on 
the bridge and the quartermaster on watch were soon 
soaked to the skin in spite of oilskins and pea coats. 
It was a fierce night and the brave little ship had a nervy 
tussle with the gale. At 3 o'clock in the morning the 
Elfrida put into Huntington Bay and dropped anchor, 
finding that five large steamers were there riding out 
the night, among them the Tremont of the Joy Line, 
and the Shinnecock. Stormbound sailing craft were also 
in the bay. 

Soon after the hook went down it was found to be 
dragging, then the ship was taken farther inshore and 
both starboard and port anchors were let drop, with a 
good length of cable. 

Later a distress sign was sighted on a yacht out in 
the open water. A volunteer boat crew pulled out and 
found the vessel to be the schooner Rosina, from New 
Haven, owned by an amateur who had a sailing master, 
three women and a cook on board. The owner seasick, 
the sailing master called the cook for a moment to the 
wheel, while he stepped down into the cabin for a chart. 
The cook lost his head and, while in the wind, the 
schooner's main-topmast snapped and her fore-topsail 
carried away. The rescuing boat crew found the women 
hysterical and with life preservers adjusted. The men 
from the Elfrida cleared away the wreckage. 

Early in the fall the division entertained members of 
H Company, Naval Brigade, M. V. M., of Springfield, at 
Camp Parker with an old-time shore clambake. The camp 
had become increasingly popular and for a number of 
years nearly every Saturday or Sunday afternoon in 
midsummer attracted division men to the place, and in 
"whites" the boys kept busy making things snug in the 
galley or policing the grounds or taking a spin in a 
pulling boat below. 



44 SECOND DIVISION NAVAL MILITIA 

November 18 l^rouglit an extraordinary spectacle — a 
book bee. At one l)ell in tbc first watch, Librarian Pahner 
and Jack-o'-the-Shelf McDonald broke out their acces- 
sioning system and the smokini;" lamp was lighted. The 
books given made a startling list. Tolstoy's "Resurrec- 
tion" was found sandwiched between "Alice in Wonder- 
land" and a volume of Lighthouse Reports. General 
I\ files, Kipling, Morgan Robertson and Roosevelt were 
popular authors. This is history, not romance. An 
entertainment followed the book bee. Clog dancing on 
the foc's'le head, nautical songs, selections on cordage 
and dead eyes by a banjo quintet and a sword dance by 
Coxswain Watson made up the backbone of the evening. 
It was seven bells when the rejoicing ceased and the 
merrymakers heaved out of the armory, all on soundings 
and under easy canvas, except the supposed contributor 
of "Resurrection," who scudded away under a double- 
reefed fore-topsail. 

The indoor meet of the next Fel)ruary sustained the 
division's reputation. By this time the annual mid-winter 
tourney had become known all over Connecticut. The 
referees in the series have included such gentlemen as 
President Luther of Trinity College and Former Lieuten- 
ant-( Governor Lake. 

A month later the division was entertained by 
H Company of Springfield in the Highland Hotel in that 
city, where the company was observing its eleventh 
anniversary. 

In June (June 19, 1904) the Klfrida came over Sa^brook 
liar with Lieutenant Lyman Root in command. She was 
navigated up the river by members of the division and 
came to anchor opposite the foot of Ferry Street. Three 
days later, a brilliant rece])tion was given on board her 
to (lovernor Chamberlain. She was dressed fore and aft 
and from water's edge to water's edge. In the illumination 
24(S Japanese lanterns were included. Many military 
ofticers were present in full dress uniform. 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 45 

The following' morning the division paraded to the 
foot of Ferry Street, embarking- and escorting- the g'ov- 
ernor and Former Governor ]\Iorgan G. Bulkeley, an 
honorary member of the division, to East Haddam, there 
to attend the dedication of a monument to Alajor-General 
Joseph Spencer of Revolutionary War fame. 

Three days later a hard-working and loyal graduate 
of the division. Ensign \\'illiam G. Hinckley, assistant 
engineer, received his commission as lieutenant and chief 
engineer. Efficient, loyal and popular, Mr. Hinckley 
received numerous congratulations of his well-earned 
promotion. 

The range of the division's energy is proved when it 
is chronicled that July ij , the clubhouse committee 
carried out a moonlight sail down the river. It was 
considerately promulgated in the committee's circular : 
"State exact nimiber of ladies you intend bringing. 
Chaperons will be in attendance." 



COURSE NINE 

THE HARTFORD 

THE Nearly cruise of 1904 was on Farrag-ut lang- 
syne flagship, the Hartford, relic of the battle 
of Mobile Bay. It was as interesting as any 
which the division has ever taken, barring, 
perhaps, that on the Panther. When station billets were 




FURLING SAU. ON THE U. S. S. HAKTKORD 



issued even the old hands volleyed (|uestions at their 
running mates of the regular crew. Here is the start of 
a ty])ical station billet : 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 47 

Form No. lo. — Bur. Navigation. 

Watch No. 126 U. S. S. Hartford. 

Name, Rate, Cox. 

Div. 2d. Gun, No. 8, 5-inch. 

Armed boat, 3d cutter. Running boat, 3d cutter. 
Abandon ship, 3d cutter. 

Fire quarters, close ports, No. 8 5-inch gun. 

That was easy enough, even for a rooky. But what 
do you know about this ? 

EVOLUTION. 

Loosing sail. 

Furling sail. 

Up and down topgallant and royal yards. 

Up and down topgallant masts. 

Making sail and getting underway. 

Tacking and wearing. 

Reef topsails. 

Shorten sail and come to anchor. 

STATIONS AND DUTIES. 

Loose topgallant sail. 

Furl topgallant sail. 

Topmast crosstrees to rig upper topgallant yardarm, 

etc. 
Topmast crosstrees, reeve and unreeve mast rope, 

fid and unfid, etc. 
Loose topgallant sail, then on deck to halliards. 
Overhaul foresheet and shorten in, man maintop 

bowlines, main and fore tacks. 
Man topsail bunt lines, then halliards. 
Let go topgallant halliards, man topsail clew lines, 

veer and stopper cables. 

It was a novelty to nearly all of the division, bringing 
back the old days of heave and haul. The regulars were 
husky men with legs like barrels and arms like black- 
smiths', nearlv every one raw material for a football player 
or anchor of a tug-of-war team. Bosn's mates were 
weather-beaten salts with faces like teakwood, seamed 
by the suns and snows of the seven seas, tanned tar-me- 



48 si-:c()Ni) i)i\ isiox \.w.\i. militia 

(|uicks vvitli chests like hair mattresses. One barnacle in 
the port watch had a voice as ras])ing as a nutmeg grater. 
You might have imagined that he was born in Lat. 2, 
North, Long. 2, West, and that he learned to creep on 
the lee side of the foc's'le. When he shrilled out a pipe 
with a chaser like the growl of distant thunder a nippous 
rooky from the Tenth Ward asked in blank amazement : 

"What in heaven did that fellow^ say?" 

"One man from each part of the ship coal the first 
steamer," was the reply. 

Some of the best boat work which the division has ever 
done was performed on this cruise. This is true not only 
in the line of oarsmanship, but also in the securing of 
boats for sea and for port. 

The duty took the division up Sound to Huntington 
Bay, then east to Gardiner's Bay, thence over to New 
London and finally back to New Haven harbor. The men 
had a welcome convenience in the line of large lockers. 
They took much interest in the apprentices, frolicsome 
little fellows then from the training station who had 
school each morning at a mess table on the starboard side 
of the g)un deck near a frowning five-inch gun with its 
glittering brass and its oiled steel. 

The boys were poring over their books and papers 
in very much the same way that lads in the seventh and 
eighth grades in the Second North or the West Aliddle 
schools are poring (perhaps more so), over arithmetic. 
In the instruction of the class the chaplain was using some 
of the books which citizens of Hartford gave to the 
ship's library in 1899 at the suggestion of Admiral Bunce. 

Most important among the events of the early part 
of the ensuing drill season was the election of Lieutenant 
Lyman Root to be navigator of the battalion to succeed 
Lieutenant Robert E. L. Hutchinson, promoted to 
be lieutenant-commander and in turn succeeding 
Lieutenant-Commander Frank S. Cornwell, promoted to 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 49 

be commander of the battalion, zicc Commander Averill, 
retired. In his capacity as chief of the division, Mr. Root 
had shown exceptional versatility, having been successful 
in the social and athletic lines, as well as in drill and dis- 
cipline. At the next drill evening- he took formal fare- 
well of the division which he had so long and so ably 
and so considerately commanded, giving generously of 
his best energy and most faithful loyalty. He had taken 
the helm when the command was Httle better than a 
wreck, had nursed it back to health and prosperity and 
made it the finest military company in all Hartford. In 
fair weather and foul weather, in joy and sorrow, on 




^ LIEUTENANT HOWARD J. BLOOMER 

soundings and off soundings, his steadying hand had 
been at the wheel and had time and again brought the 
division safe into port. Strong and clear purpose, affection 
for the command and for salt water,— these were our 
chief's dominant traits. The ability to read character 
was another quality. But of these three characteristics 
his affection for the division stood ever foremost. 

Captain Howard J. Bloomer came over from the 
infantry to act as next lieutenant of the division, not the 
least of the prerogatives being the privilege of presiding 
7 



50 SECOND DRISION XANAL MILITIA 

as toastniastcr at the yearly banquet. ( )n the menu card 
was a huitrain re-rigged from Coxswain John Kendrick 
Bangs so as to read : 

Oh, Navy Plug, Ottoman, Alonzo, 

Puritan Boy, Especial, H. Clay, 
Invincible, Rosedale, Alphonso, 

Soby's Best, German Lovers, El Re}-, 
Elegantes, Re-ina, Selectos, 

Oh, Two-For, Madura, Grande, 
Shoe Pegs, Oscuro, Perfectos — 

You drive all my sorrows away. 

A floral bell nearly as large as the foretop was lifted 
and revealed an elegant silver loving cup presented to 
Mr. Root as testimony to their high esteem. A little later 
followed the elevation of Air. Root to the rank of 
lieutenant-commander of the battalion. 



COURSE TEN 



THE COLUMBIA 

SAIL drill was the feature of the cruise on the Hart- 
ford in 1904 and in the following year drill in 
small boats was the feature. On the training ship 
the boats usually hung outside the rail, but on the 
cruiser the boats were frequently kept inside the rail. 
With the ship's four funnels and her multitudinous sky- 
lights and deckhouses her superstructure was unsuitable 
for "setting up." 

A series of tug-of-war pulls enlivened the trip. The 
New Haven division won from Bridgeport and Hartford 
from New Haven. Thus it was for the Hartford team to 
pull the ship's team. This contest came and to the 
astonishment of all, the Hartford men won. And so it 
was that when the division returned half of the lads were 
hoarse. 

Bugler L. Wayne Adams w^as in high feather during 
the trip. He had memorized the calls and sounded them 
accurately. By virtue of his high office he was excused 
from previous service as messman ; for much of the 
cruise he was a man of elegant leisure. On his return to 
Wethersfield, residents of Jordan Lane and the Nail Keg 
Club at Hanmer's grocery heard many a fine yarn, spun 
in Wayne's best style. 

The old rifle range in the South Meadow was dis- 
continued, owing to the increased range and power of the 
rifles just introduced into the Connecticut National 
Guard. In conseciuence the division's fall target practice 
was conducted over the range in South Manchester. Act- 
ing as a marker, Landsman Hill was hit by a deflected 
bullet, which was found later in his shoe. Hill was taken 
to the Hartford Hospital. 



52 SECOND DIVISION NAVAL MILITIA 

Following the indoor meet, given successfully, of 
course, the division began to prepare to celebrate its 
tenth anniversary. The banquet was held in the Hartford 
Club. Jn the blue uniform the men of the division 
attending mustered for entry into the dining room, to 
the strains of a march. A dismounted signal gun of old- 
time size from the Dauntless rested at the center of the 
head table, flanked by two silver cups, trophies won by 
athletic teams from the division. Knife bayonets of the 
new kind rested on the cups. Two stacks of rifles afforded 
resting-place for the division's colors. 

The menu cards contained the following : 

"Such a deal of skimhle, skamhle stuff "A page where men 

Ai puts me from my faith. " May read strange matters. " 

Henry iv. Macbeth. 

X Ibome port IRoutine x 

Call All Hands 

AA AA AA A 

Heave Anchor to Short Stay Serve Grog Stand by for a Blow 

Up and Down 

Port Marine Growth Bleached Starboard 

Hot Suds Served Forward on Turtle Deck 

Bony Walks the Plank to the Wake 

Dutch Sea Apples Sliced Irish Torpedoes 

Cascarets 

"Damn the Torpedoes! Go Ahead" 

Sea Cow oflf Madeira 

Spud Chippies Burnside Bullets 

IL^man TRoot ipuncb 

^ I/' Fruit Scouse 

Xi'^ u Vesuvius Ice "Up all ■ — •" 

^ o Pass to Leeward 

< Roquefort and Club 

Black Jack 



"Dlrine In hookas, glorious In pipe. 

When tipped in amber, mellow, rich, and ripe 
Like other charmers, woning the caress 

Most da/.zlingly when ilaring In full dress, 
Yet tliy true lovers more admire by far 
Thy naked beauties - (;i\e me a cigar!" 

Boatswain s Mate Byron "The Island." II. 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 53 

Two hours were passed "Off Yarnland." Governor 
Roberts brought the division men to their feet when he 
told them that he intended to order out the battahon 
when the presentation took place of the silver service 
voted by the General Assembly for the new battleship 
Connecticut. Senator Bulkeley told the familiar and 
always stirring story of Admiral Bunce's splendid work 
in taking a monitor around Cape Horn. 

In the early spring Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Robert 
D. Chapin succeeded to the command of the division. In the 
nine vears he had been in the division he had ascended the 




LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER ROBERT D. CHAPIN 

ladder, round by round, as seaman, coxswain, gunner's 
mate, second and first class, and boatswain's mate, first 
class. He had served on about every brand of standing 
committee w^hich the organization had utilized. Later he 
was appointed naval aide with the rank of lieutenant- 
commander. 

Again in the early summer a racing crew was essayed, 
with Boatswain's Mate Hogan in charge of the training, 



54 SECOND DIN'ISION XA\AL MILITIA 

tlic course extending from an imaginary line off the old 
pumping station below Riverside Park to a point oft" the 
East Hartford bank about a quarter of a mile above the 
railroad bridge. Training was punctuated by swims and 
dives from a spring plank in the meadow bank a short dis- 
tance from the bridge. 



M 



COURSE ELEVEN 



THE MINNEAPOLIS 

R. CHAPIN'S cruise was on the Minneapolis, 
sister ship to the Cohimbia, and it started on 
August 25, 190C:), from New Haven harbor. 
The ship steamed down the Sound and by Race 
Rock Light and anchored off Block Island in the evening 
with the port anchor, in seventeen fathoms, sixty fathoms 
of chain out. A protected cruiser, the Minneapolis did 
not rate a band, but she carried one till the Dolphin came 
along and commandeered the musicians. The next day 
the ship steamed out to sea for a hundred miles and then 
after a diversity of courses came to anchor in Menemsha 
Bight. Target practice, while the Minneapolis was steam- 
ing at a rate of ten knots, made one afternoon's work. In 
it the division's team struck hard times, but in the signal 
contest later the division redeemed itself, Quartermaster 
Palmer being an easy first among the signal force of the 
battalion in the Ardois branch and Quartermaster Ferris 
making an especially fine showing with the semaphore 
work. The division has for several years been strong 
in the signal branch. 

When Governor Woodruff chose a naval aide it was 
Mr. Chapin who was selected for that high honor, and 
when the next commanding officer of the Second was 
nominated. Dr. Beach moved up to a lieutenant's stripes. 
Beginning in the ranks Dr. Beach went upon the staff as 
assistant surgeon and then back to the Second as ensign. 

For a number of years the division had combined with 
other commands in the Elm Street Armory to attend an 
annual military service in a Hartford church, but in the 



56 



SECOND DIVISION NAVAL MILITIA 



following December it decided to attend a separate or 
sailors' service, and the church of the Rev. Dr. Main was 
selected. It is a question \\hy this was chosen, but a 
legend has it that the choice was on account of the 
nautical hint in the pastor's name and that in the denomi- 
nation, the Baptist. In a sermon on intelligent patriotism 
Dr. Main interspersed a number of sailorlike yarns to 




LIKUTENANT CARROLL C. liKACH 



illustrate several points. He told the story about Nelson's 
disregard of Parker's signal at the l)attle of Copenhagen ; 
and that of John Paul Jones's answer in the fight with the 
Serapis. 

One of the most loyal an<l faithful members the 
division ever included had enlisted a short time before in 
the L'nited States Navy, Seaman John J. A. Connor, and 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 57 

was now on the battleship Connecticut on the always 
memorable trip around the world, bombarding friends 
with welcome post cards. 

The eleventh anniversary banquet was enjoyed in the 
Hotel Garde in conjunction with Admiral Bunce Section, 
Navy League of the United States. Admiral Caspar F. 
Goodrich told about his personal interest in the Xaval 
Militia, an adjunct necessary to the Navy, as he declared, 
and Corporation Counsel Arthur L. Shipman talked as an 
attorney to the gathering, telling about the influence of 
the navy in Guam and Samoa, where the Navy was still 
administering the government. 



!» 



COURSE TWELVE 

AGAIN THE PRAIRIE 

SPACE has been economized for the chronicUng of 
the next cruise, a trip on our old friend the Prairie 
to Hampton Roads. For several seasons the naval 
militiamen had prospered with running mates 
from the regulars, but for a reason to be made evident in 
the next sentence the pair-off system was not pursued this 
time. The Prairie had a skeleton crew of 145 and the 
battalion numbered about fifty above those figures. The 
start for the run down the coast was made by way of 
Montauk Point, rounding wdiich the Prairie put her helm 
over for the first long leg on a course of S. 58 degrees W. 
Early in the evening the wind began rising and old hands 
watched the rookies for symptoms of internal disturbance. 
The journey down was a welcome innovation and the 
passing of Five-Fathom Bank Lightship and of Winter 
Quarter Lightship were events. When the Cape Charles 
Lightship came abeam the Prairie went on various courses 
until she dropped anchor oft the Chamberlin Hotel at Old 
Point Comfort. During a part of the run soundings were 
made by the Thompson sounding machine, a method that 
had been studied in former cruises, but with less interest 
than on this. The Jamestown ter-centenary was in 
progress that summer and liberty to an unusual extent 
was allowed to the battalion. One afternoon about fifty 
members of the division visited the Connecticut building 
at the exposition. Most of them signed their names in 
the register, Boatswain's Mate Perkins at first directing 
the writing class and. when he tired, another petty officer 
relieving him. It was with joy nearly equal to signing 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 59 

the pay roll that the sailors affixed their signatures. 
Manager Curtis greeted the men with a graceful courtesy 
rivalled only by Commissioner Barber's graceful urbanity. 
Maps of the exposition grounds were served out By 
using these and keeping the lead going and working their 
jaw tackle, the men made shift to reach proper destina- 
tions. 

The same afternoon the men gravitated to a military 
carnival on the parade. An impression prevailed in the 




LIEUTENANT (JUNIOR GRADE) CHARLES I.. HOGAN 

division that the division's tug-of-war team could have 
outpulled the team which won in the carnival. 

In years gone bv cruise clubs had been launched, for 
instance the Ham-Bone Club at Fort Wright and the 
Fore-Top on the Hartford. In Jamestown the Kimona 
Club was organized with Lieutenant Hinckley at its head. 



60 SECOND DIVISION NAVAL MILITIA 

It consisted of a president, a vice-president, a secretary 
and a ciiancellor of the exchequer, with an understudy for 
each. 

On another afternoon Commissioner Barber made his 
return call. He witnessed hammock and dunnage bag 
inspection, a "ceremony" which our men loved as 
cordially as the devil loves holy water. He saw, also, 
Underwood typewriters in the paymaster's office and 
rejoiced at the use of a Hartford product. 

In the fall information came that the Elfrida was to 
leave Connecticut waters and that the unarmored gunboat 
Machias was to take her place as the battalion's practice 
ship. The new ship was built in Bath, Me., in 1892. She 
is of steel, has two masts. Her length is 204 feet, her 
beam 32 feet, her mean draft 12 feet, her displacement 
1,777 tons, her net tonnage 398, her speed 15 1-2 knots 
and her horse power 1,484. She has accommodations for 
nine officers and about 132 men, or about six times as 
many men as the Elfrida could sleep. 

A Christmas tree in the division parlor brought joy to 
all hands and astonishment to not a few. It was accom- 
panied by an innocuous punch of pink tea caliber, followed 
by Mother Carey sandwiches, saltpeter and frozen rating 
badges (Neapolitan ice cream). Skylights were closed, 
all glims were doused and current was turned on for 
small electric lamps in a hemlock, which had been deco- 
rated with marlinspikes, rope yarns, and cornucopias. 
Lieutenant (Junior Grade) James A. Evans, rigged gaily 
as Santa Claus, served out gifts from the break 
of the quarter deck, assisted by Boatswain's Mates 
Perkins and Wyllie and Gunner's Mate Dickerman. Mr. 
Hinckley received a miniature Tillie Hadley. Mr. Hogan 
was presented with a milk wagon. To Seaman Barnes 
was given a rake. Gunner's Mate Dickerman, who held 
the championship of the fleet at the deck game of 
bowling, was helped to a children's set of tenpins. Quarter- 
master Palmer, impressario of the Banzai orchestra, drew 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 61 

an accordion. A village character in the company received 
an allowance of jaw tackle. A certain apprentice seaman 
was the recipient of a "hammock ladder," which dates 
back to the berth deck of Father Noah's Ark. 

March 17, 1908, an order was issued from the 
adjutant-general's office marking the passing of the 
''battalion." The official title of the force was changed to 
Naval Militia, Connecticut National Guard. Ratings 
were officially prescribed, those of the first class in the 
division being the following: Master-at-arms, boat- 
swain's mate, gunner's mate, machinist's mate and water- 
tender. 

May 21 the Tillie Hadley was taken to Saybrook and 
exchanged for the First Division's steam cutter. Later 
the Tillie went to the New York Navy Yard. The 
departure of the old steam whaleboat marked the passing 
of one of the company's time-honored institutions. The 
boat's successor is variously known as the Hallie Tidley 
and the Merry Widow. 

The observance of a division memorial day began this 
year, actives and veterans assembling at noon, May 30th, 
for a service, and parading in the afternoon as part of 
the escort to the Grand Army of the Republic. 

In midsummer a movement came to reorganize the 
Veteran Association. A meeting was held July 24th 
and the project advanced at a second meeting held a week 
later, when the matter of participating in the approaching 
dedication of Hartford Bridge was discussed. Former 
Ensign Fred E. Bosworth was chief oiler of the 
machinery. 



COURSE THIRTEEN 

AND AGAIN THE PRAIRIE 

ONCE more it was on the Prairie that the company 
cruised. It was the fourth time, once to Bar 
Harbor, once to Penobscot Bay, and once to 
Hampton Roads. So often has the ship been 
the company's floating home, that long-service members 
are more famihar with her than with any other ship in 
the Navy, unless it be the Machias. 

With the company were men from naval militia in 
New York City and Brooklyn, congenial companions, 
with more of naval wardrobe than the Second Division 
showed. The cruise was mostly in the Sound. The 
ship was engaged in squadron maneuvers. 

A flotilla of six torpedo boats accompanied the squad- 
ron, as did also four submarines. Boats of this kind were 
in 1908 comparatively new to many in the company, and 
when Ensign Hogan found an opportunity to make a 
descent in a submarine he embraced it. 

Back in Hartford the men grew busy in preparing for 
the Bridge Dedication, the most im])ortant festivity 
which the city has ever conducted, to which the command 
voted to invite its old nautical guest, H Company of 
Springfield, down. 

The dedication opened October 6 with the firing of a 
salute, by the division, of course. In the evening the 
division paraded in a historical pageant, the men repre- 
senting men-o'-wars men of the conflict of 1812. 

The battalion paraded in the giant military procession 
of October 8 as a landing party, marching in white hats, 
and beins: anions: the warmest favorites in the long 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 63 

column. In the afternoon it banqueted in the Y. M. C. A. 
with H Company men, for whom the division's poet 
laureate had evolved a lyric, of which the following is a 
specimen verse : 

"When dinner's o'er, we then will go, then will go, 
then will go. 
When dinner's o'er, we then will go, to East Hart- 
ford's sandy shore." 

While the company was beating up Pearl Street, an 
automobilist rammed the hospital apprentice, an incident 
which developed an aftermath in the superior court 
when with a former Philippine soldier, Sergeant Benedict 
Holden, as attorney and counselor and proctor in 
admiralty, Mclntyre got a verdict. In his argument 
Sergeant Holden commended the division as a patriotic 
command in which the city might well take pride. 

ANOTHER CHRISTMAS TREE 

Jan'y 4, 1909 — Fourth Day Out. 

Lat. 41° 49' N. Long. 71° 36' W. Bar., rising; Wind, 
E. S. E. ; Atmos., Smoky. All hands happy. Thus ends 
this Day. — [Extract from the Division's Log.] 

At eight bells in the second dog watch all hands were 
piped to the fo'c'sle. On the forecastle-head two screen 
cloths were rigged on a sliding gunther brace. Being 
drawn, these disclosed Master-at-Arms Perkins in the 
capacity of Neptune disguised as Santa Claus. By the 
heel of the bowsprit were the crosstrees, which had been 
sent down and rigged with rope yarns and stores from 
the canteen. Around the tree and along both rails 
packages were stowed facing inboard, made fast with 
marlin and manila. Pipes, matches and tobacco were- 
served out and the smoking lamp was lighted. Then gifts 
were passed out. Dr. Beach received a box of pills. 
Coxswain Burns a masthead light, Master-at-Arms 
Perkins twin dolls, one young Benedict a toy baby 



64 SECOND DIVISION NAVAL MILITIA 

carriage, and Watertender Lewis a slice bar. Gifts wise 
and otherwise were passed till the supply was exhausted. 

Skylarking such as this varied the serious work of 
the drill season. Although the membership of the 
command from time to time changed to some extent, the 
majority of the men had been in the division for years 
and were fairly proficient in seamanship as w^ell as in the 
ordinary armory routine, and it must not be imagined 
that their fun interfered with their nautical work. 

The diversity of the fun is proved when allusion is 
made to a game between the division's new basketball 
team and the Boston Bloomer Girls'. It was chronicled 
that not a member of the girls' team lost a backcomb or 
displaced a "rat," although their hair was coiled like the 
fiemished-down end of the Elfrida's topping lift. 

The indoor meet was the last held in the old armory. 
It was as creditable as any in the long and popular series 
and went as smoothly as desired. 

June 13 was observed as Memorial Sunday, the first 
which the division formally kept. The company reported 
at the armory to act as escort to the veteran company in 
a parade to Spring Grove Cemetery. 



^ 



COURSE FOURTEEN 



THE MACHIAS 

SO near is the history drawing to the present that 
merely a bare outHne is given here of the next 
two years. The cruise of the summer of 1909 
was on the Machias and took the division to quaint 
old Provincetown. The Pilgrims' Tower and the swim- 
ming linger in the men's memory. 

Members of the company enjoyed three days' duty at 




ENSIGN FRANK H. BURNS 



the Hudson-Fulton celebration in New York City. In 
December the company transferred to the new state 
armory and the indoor meet drew nearly three thousand 
spectators. 



COURSE FIFTEEN 



THE LOUISIANA 

THE cruise of 1910 was on the battleship 
Louisiana and it carried the division around the 
Island of Bermuda. April 29 the division's 
cracker jack wall-scaling team won the world's 
championship, in the Twenty-third Regiment Armory in 
Brooklyn, N. Y., over three competing teams. 



The Fourth Division 
Naval Militia Connecticut National Guard 

Soon after the forming of the First Division an 
engineer force was outlined and then established and this 
in time became known as an engineer division. The 
organizing of the Second Division had its influence on 
the so-called engineer division. In time the branch as a 
separate organization seemed to lapse, although its 
importance was increasing. 

In January, 1908, an artificer division was called for, 
in an order from the adjutant-general's ofBce, to have a 
maximum enlisted strength of forty, and Chief Engineer 
William G. Hinckley was placed in command. Commander 
Cornwell directed Mr. Hinckley and x\ssistant Engineer 
Osborne A. Day to enlist and organize the division. 
Warrant Machinists Noble, Rathgeber and Larkin of the 
staff were to rep(^rt to Mr. Hinckley for duty. ]\lr. \oble 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 



67 



was a Second Division alumnus. February 4 Mr. Hinckley 
submitted the rates. Corinth L. LaRock of Hartford was 
early appointed a chief machinist's mate. 




LIEUTENANT WILLIAM G. HINCKLEY 

A. J. German and Walter B. Gordon of Hartford have 
also served in the artificer or engineer division, the 
former becoming a warrant machinist and the latter a 
chief machinist's mate. 



1 



APPENDIX A 
!^ 

NECROLOGY 

Lieutenant Felton Parker 

Charter member. First commander. Spanish War Veteran. 
Annapolis, 1882. Member first Greeley relief expedi- 
tion on the "Yantic." 

Died December 22, 1900, of fall from his horse. Buried in 
South Lancaster, Mass. 

Quartermaster (Second Class) Thomas S. Cheney 
Charter member. 

Died February 8, 1898, of appendicitis. Buried in South 
Manchester, Conn. 

Coxswain Philip D. Burnham 
Charter member. 

Died May 19, 1903, of tuberculosis. Buried in Spring Grove 
Cemetery, Hartford, Conn. 

Seaman George Bischoff 
Athlete. 
Died 1904. Buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, New York City. 

Seaman George F. Colby 
Spanish War Veteran. 
Died May 17, 1903, of pneumonia. Buried in Mt. Pocono, Pa. 

Seaman Edward J. Doran 
Spanish War Veetran. 

Died July 3, 1910, of appendicitis. Buried in New Britain, 
Conn. 

Seaman William A. Geer 
Spanish War Veteran. 
Died 1910. Buried in Middlefield, Conn. 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 69 

Seaman James Hawley 

Spanish War Veteran. Assistant sculptor of Corning foun- 
tain. 
Died December ii, 1899. Buried in New York. 

Seaman William M. Hurd 
Spanish War Veteran. 

Died 1909 of tropical fever. Buried in Middle Haddam, 

Conn. 

Seaman Romie B. Kuehns 

Died April 7, 1911, of pneumonia. Buried in New York. 

Seaman Alfred H. Saunders 

Buried in Cedar Hill Cemeterj^, Hartford, Conn. 

Seaman Louie P. Strong 

Died May 30, 191 1, of tuberculosis. Buried in Old North 
Cemetery, Hartford, Conn. 



10 



APPENDIX B 



LIST OF MEMBERS SINCE ORGANIZATION 

The following is a list of members since the organiza- 
tion of the division, compiled from rosters and roll books 
and various records, and is believed to be substantially 
accurate : 



A 

Alden, H. W 1896 

Allen, C. D ...1900 

Alexander, L. P 1900 

Appley, 1900 

Abbe, R. L 1901 

Adams, L. W 1902 

Arnold, F. W 1903 

Ailing, M. D 1904 

Amos, W. H 1905 

Ashwell, H. B 1906 

Andrews, D. H 1907 

Austin, H. E 191 1 

B 

Bosworth, F. E 1896 

Burnett A. E 1896 

Bissell, H. G 1896 

Burnham, P. D 1896 

Bailey, C. L 1896 

Baxter, G. S 1896 

Beal, G. W 1896 

Bevins, V. L 1896 

Bigelow, H. W 1896 

Berry, H 1898 

Baldwin, H. S 189S 

Beamish, J. F 1898 

Brewer. A. L 1897 

Brewer, A. R 1897 

Brewer, E. J 1897 

Bletchcr, F. O 1897 



Brinley, G 1897 

Brinley, J. G. W 1897 

Blakeslee, F. G 1897 

Buck, H. R 1897 

Beers, R. C 1897 

Burke, J. F 1897 

Barber, A. W 1898 

Buck, J. S 1899 

Burnett, H. E 1899 

Brooks, H. D 1899^ 

Bragg, F. L 1899 

Bidwell, D. D 1899 

Bonner, J. A 1900 

Brooks, C. M 190a 

Burke, C. E 1900 

Bannon, J. E 1900 

Barlow, F. J 1900 

Bland, A. L I900' 

Bush, J. S 1900 

Beach, Carroll C 1901 

Barnes, C. S., Jr 1902 

Bischoff, G 1903 

Blair, G. E 1902 

Barnes, H. E 1902 

Bassett, E. E 1902 

Bcckley, H. C 1904. 

Bryant, H. C 1904 

Beach, O. L 1905 

Bourn, K. C 1905. 

Bloomer, H. J 1905 

Burns, F. H 1905 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 



71 



Burns, W. F., Jr 1906 

Burr, H. R 1906 

Brown, H. E 1907 

Banning, B. J 1908 

Barnes, E. L 1910 

Brennan, A. J 1910 

Burke, T. F 1910 

C 

Cochran, L. B 1896 

Crowell, E. H 1896 

Cheney, T. S 1896 

Caswell, L. S 1896 

Chapman, J. W 1896 

Case, A. L 1896 

Cuntz, H. F 1896 

Chapin, R. D 1897 

Caswell, C. H 1897 

Case, H. B 1898 

Cutting, A. S 1898 

Coggeshall, IM. H 1898 

Colby, G. F 1898 

Case, H. A 1899 

Chaffee, D. G 1899 

Clinch, E. E 1899 

Cadman, G. B 1900 

Carney, J. B 1900 

Coe, C. S 1900 

Crowley, A. J 1900 

Camp, H. P 1900 

Cotter, W. J 1900 

Currier, H. D 1900 

Cunningham, J. W. M 1901 

Cooney, F. J 1901 

Connors, J. J. A 1902 

Carroll, L. J 1902 

Caverly, H. T 1902 

Cooley, J. W 1902 

Cadman, R. M 1904 

Calder, W. P 1904 

Chappell, F. N 1904 

Casey, E. J 1904 

Cotter, W. B 1905 

Carter, J. S 1906 

Case, R. W 1906 



Comstock, J. C 1906 

Case, H. E 1907 

Case, R. U 1907 

Coburn, F. A 1908 

Craig, J 1908 

Covel, R. F 1910 

D 

Duff, R. R 1896 

Doran, E. J 1896 

Dimock, S. K 1897 

Drury, H. W 189S 

Dimock, 1 1898 

Dix, L. R 1899 

De Lucco, J 1900 

Dickenson, L. R 1900 

Driver, J. F 1900 

Devine, W. W 1901 

Doebler, T. J 1901 

Downes, W. G 1901 

Dermont, W 1902 

Dungan, L. E 1902 

Dickerman, C. W 1902 

Dalton, H. A 1903 

Day, H. A 1903 

Diamond, J. E 1903 

Diehl, G 1904 

Duffy, F. L 1904 

Dunn, L. G 1904 

Devine, L. H 1905 

Duane, W. J 1906 

Duffin, J. B 1908 

Devine, A. H 1910 

Dagle, H.. Jr 1911 

E 

Evans, H. M 1901 

Entress, W. W 1904 

Evans, J. A 1904 

Eichelman, W 1907 . 

Elsdon, P 1909 

F 

Field, E. B 1896 

Field, F. E 1896 

Filley, W. J 1896 



72 



SECOND DIVISION NAVAL MILITIA 



Franke, P 1898 

Freeman, S. G 1898 

Forest, G. C 

Foster, G 1898 

Ferguson, H. D 1899 

Foley, T. \V 1901 

Flanigan, G. W 190J 

Ferris, M. A 1903 

Flanigan, W. H 1903 

Flynn, R. J 1904 

Fletcher, A. R 1905 

Flynn, H. T 1905 

P'lynn, W. J 1906 

Fagan, J. M 1907 

P'ournier, O. J 1907 

Fagan, F. C 1909 

Flynn, G. T 191 1 

G 

Gaines, D. A 1896 

Gilbert, E. R 1896 

Goodrich, R. M 18-96 

Gabrielle, B. L 1897 

Gallup, C. M 1898 

Geer, W. A 1898 

Grundshaw, E. J 1896 

Goodridge, T. W 1897 

Gordon, F. G 1897 

Gillette, F. W 1898 

Goulet, W 1898 

Gragan, H. T 1902 

Gilmore, A. B 1902 

Gillmore, G. P 190-' 

Goltra, W. J 190J 

Griswold, H. S 190J 

Gesner, C. M 1903 

Grant, A. A 1903 

Grover, O. F 1903 

Geckler, G. C 1904 

Grover, C. D 1904 

Geissler, C. G 1905 

Gilligan, W 1906 

Gleason, C. A 190b 

Gilde, A. E 1907 

Gilbert, A. L 1909 



Garrity, F. E 191 1 

Gormeley, W. E 191 1 

Gustafson, E 191 1 

H 

Harlow, AI. P 1896 

Hascall, S. H 1896 

Havens, S. H 1896 

Hawlej', J. J 1898 

Heymann, H. B 1896 

Flinckley, W. G 1898 

Holmes, R. J 1896 

Holcombe, G. A 1898 

Hunt, B. A 1898 

Huntley, S. A 1898 

Hurd, W. N 1898 

Huntington, C. A 1898 

Hale, C. F 1899 

Hart, C. W 1899 

Heimer, E. Paul 1899 

Hogan, C. L 1899 

Hawkins, W. E 1900 

Harding, A. W 1900 

Higbie, W. W 1900 

Hollister, R 1902 

Hedlund, E. V 1903 

Hynes, D. N 1903 

Hill, G 1904 

House, W. E 1904 

Humphreys, J. F 1904 

1 iarrington, R. J 1906 

Hunter, D. C 1906 

Halloway, H. H 1906 

1 linckle}-, G. \V 1907 

1 lorn, A. A 1907 

Howdcn, G. A 1907 

I [art, F. .S 1909 

Hepburn, J. E 1910 

Howard, L. A 1910 

Hunter, W 1910 

I 

Ingalls, F. C 1896 

Ingraham, E. R 1903 

Ingraham, C. H 1909 



CONNECTICUT NAT10N.\L GUARD 



73 



J 

Jackson, E. Q 1898 

Judson, D. R 1900 

Joslyn, L. J 1908 

Jamieson, H. H 1908 

K 

Kelton, R. H. C 1856 

Keys, F. R 1896 

Kohn, E. J 1897 

Kenyon, L. W 1897 

Kowalsky, F. E 189S 

Kenyon, I. R 1900 

Kelle}-, iM. F 1902 

Kress, L 1903 

Kane, T. R 1903 

Koenig, O., Jr 1904 

Kirbell, E 1905 

Kimberly, R. A 1907 

Kuehns, R. B 1908 

Kavanaugh, T. J 1910 

L 

Larkum, H. H 1896 

Larkum, W. N 1896 

Le Fever, A. P 1898 

Long, M. C 1898 

Lockwood, N. L 1900 

Langrish, E. J., Jr 1900 

Liebert, E. T 1900 

Lycett, F. W 1901 

Leclair, ]\I. J 1902 

Lawler, E. R 1903 

Lewis, H. M 1904 

Livingston, \V. R 1904 

Lesnick, F. G 1904 

Lewis, \V. S 1905 

Lewis, F. C 1906 

Lewis, W. D 1906 

Lathrop, B. S 1906 

Loveland, F., Jr 1907 

Lilley, F. S 1908 

Lambe, G. JM 190CJ 

Lyman, J. E 1909 



Lampson. H. E 1910 

Lange, W. A 1910 

Lutolf, H. W 1910 

M 

Middlebrook, L. F 1896 

Meek, W. L 1896 

Morrell, D. J 1896 

Malm, O. W 1896 

Maxim, H. P 1896 

iMcCreary. R. M 1896 

McManus, J. W 1896 

Miller, G. P 1896 

Miller, H. 1 1896 

Morgan, J. H 1896 

Morris, S 1898 

Martin, G. R 1898 

Mather, F. M 1897 

i\l organ, V. F 1897 

Moses, L. K 1898 

Magnel, A. E 1899 

Mohr, F. L 1899 

Miller, F. B 1900 

Maslen, G. S 1901 

McClunie, F. B 1904 

Mandigo, W. G 1900 

Murphy, M. J 1901 

McDonald, C. H 1902 

Merriman, H. E 1902 

Marsden, F. L 1903 

Meyrs, C. E 1903 

Marcy, ]\I. H 1903 

McCaw, J. O 1903 

Morris, R 1905 

Moss, A 1905 

Meyer, W. H 1904 

Malloy, E. J , 1904 

Mclntyre, J 1905 

Marley, J. W 1905 

Mahoney, J. J 1905 

Marsden, L. E 1907 

Mclntyre, F. E 1907 

McAlpine, K. J 1907 

^McDonald, R. H 1907 



74 



SECOND DIVISION NAVAL MILITIA 



Maude, G. H 1908 

Moriarty, J. J 1908 

Madden, E. F 1909 

McGee, J. F 1909 

Mulligan, A. J 1910 

Morgan, S. N 191 1 

N 

Northam, R. C 1896 

Newell, J. H 1896 

Nutter. H. Y 1896 

Northam, E. T 1898 

Noble, E. J 1898 

Neilson, C. C 1898 

Norton, F. C 1899 

Nooney, E. DeW 1903 

Nuttall, W. H 1903 

Nichols, G. A 1908 

O 

Osgood, W. J 1896 

Oaks, E. A., Jr 1897 

Owens, T. S. J 1900 

O'Brien, T 1904 

O'Laughlin, H 1909 

P 

Parker, F 1896 

Perkins, L. B 1896 

Peltier, F. H i&p6 

Phillips, T. V. C 1897 

Pierce, F. A 1897 

Pychon, L. F. L 1898 

Pierson, W. W 1900 

Palmer, R. C 1900 

Perkins, A. L 1902 

Perkins, F. A 1904 

Pitney, L. A 1905 

Pairman, J. R.. Jr 1908 

Pollock, J. F 1909 

Pitney, J. H 1910 

R 

Rice, C. D 1896 

Root, L 1896 

Relyea. C. A 1897 

Riplev, W. C 1898 



Root, J. B 1898 

Reed, G. R 1898 

Roberts, E. L 1900 

Roberts, W. C 1903 

Reed, E. F 1902 

Relyea, C. F 1904 

Roberts. J. J 1905 

Rathburn, C. E., Jr 1905 

Root, E. J 1903 

Ring, F. E 1904 

Reisel, G. L 1904 

Ritchie. J. li 1905 

Rancor, R. S 1906 

Reeves, W. A 1907 

Ramagge, A. H 1908 

Roberts, K. E 1910 

Richard, J. S 1910 

S 

Schriviner, W. H 

Seymour, F. P 

Stevens, H 

Saunders, C. C 1898 

Seaver, F. A 

Schwerdtfeger, O. M 1898 

Scoville, A. W 1897 

Scoville, L. H 1897 

Storrs, H. E 1897 

Sheperd, F. F 1898 

Sanford, H 1898 

Schwirz, ^vl. H 1899 

Sparks, L. W 1900 

Scoville, P. D 1900 

Saunders, A. H 1899 

Sparks, C. H 1899 

Scanlon, E. M 

Sweeney, F 

Steele, C. W 1900 

Standisli, H. A 1900 

Standish, F. A 1900 

Smith, F. E 1901 

Strong, L. P 1901 

Shea, C. D 1902 

Squires, G. T 1903 

Schneider, H 1904 



CONNECTICUT NATIONAL GUARD 



75 



Storrs, H. H 1904 

ScQlield, H. AI 1905 

Sadler, L 1907 

Southergill, C. R 1900 

SmAthe, A. F 1906 

Stitt, D. F 1906 

Sargeant, E. L 1907 

Smith, T. H 1907 

Shea, E. F 1909 

Slate, H. C 1909 

Smith, H 1908 

Storey, A. N., Jr 1909 

Smith, W. G 191 1 

Smith, F. H i9n 

T 

Tyler, C. Ai 1901 

Tucker, P. E 1902 

Thompson, C. W 1902 

Trude, A. T 1902 

Trimble, J. F 1903 

Talcott, AI. C 1898 

Tregoning, \V. C 1897 

Twardoks, J. F 1898 

Tinkham, G. H 1898 

Tobey, E. C 1900 

Tolhurst, W. C 1904 

Thurber. L. A 1904 

Tefft, L. W 1905 

Treat, H. L 1905 

Tanse}', J. J 1906 

Thompson, P. G 1907 

Tobin, M 1909 

Thompson, H. A 1909 

Tuverson, H. S 1910 

U 

Uhler, J. K 1808 



V 

Vaile, E. B 1902 

Vanas, A 1907 

Victor, G 1909 

Vosburgh, R. D 1910 

W 

Wilson, L. B 1896 

Walsh, J. G .".'.'1896 

Wightman, A. H 1896 

Williams, C. C 1896 

Wiiislow, F. G 1896 

Woodward, C. S 1896 

Woodbridge, H. K 1897 

Wilcox, G. E 1897 

Welles, T. D i8>S 

Welles, R. B 1898 

Willard, W. L., Jr '1900 

Watson, J 1900 

Wilson, W. W 1899 

Williams, R. H 1899 

Way, H. P 1899 

Warner, E. W 1899 

Woodford, B. C 1901 

Wiley, H. A .'1901 

Wyllie, R. B 1904 

Wakeman, W. AL, Jr 1905 

Watson, A. B 1906 

Woodward, B. P 1905 

Walters, A. C 1906 

Wells, H. L 1907 

Whiting, C. H 1910 

Warner, B. C 1909 

Welles, J. D 1898 

W , R. B 1897 

Y 

Young. F. L 1898 

Yorgensen. P. L. L 1899 

Young. J. B., Jr 1890 



h 









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lUl 12 19'* 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



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